Science foundation Ireland disgraces us internationally - yet again

Many reading this blog may wonder at how Ireland “works”; of course, it doesn’t. However, the process is long-attested; a tight core in Dublin city center creating an alternative reality and finding politicians willing to front. Ideas are NOT discussed; if you attempt to speak truth to power, it just waits until you get upset enough that they can declare victory. That, in short, is why institutional Ireland is the stupidest country in the West

I note there are many readers of this post in Germany. They may think "The Irish are at it again - delusional pumping up of the economy, now science". Disregarding the fact that Ireland bailed out the German banks, that is basically correct. I will spare such readers the rest of this blog by summarizing;

1. The recent Nature ad for SFI is an absurd lie

2. Irish scientific performance was better in 2002, the year before SFI was created, than in 2013. In 2002 it was ranked 38 overall; in 2013 it was ranked 40 overall.SFI  has cost in the region of E 800 million annually, according to Chris Horn of Iona and various state boards;


http://www.scimagojr.com/countryrank.php?area=0&category=0&region=all&year=2002&order=it&min=0&min_type=it

http://www.scimagojr.com/countryrank.php?area=0&category=0&region=all&year=2013&order=it&min=0&min_type=it

 It is also lower in 2013 than 2002 in the 3 categories cherry-picked for the Nature ad as we see below

I append two recent e-mails to Taoiseach  Kenny. He is careful to formally acknowledge everything I send. No, of course I do not expect action; however, many of us Irish are au fait enough now to fill the power vacuum that obtains in Ireland

My 2011 thoughts were re-blogged in Indonesia;

SFI also destroyed collegiality

In the past, SFI famously hired private planes at taxpayer's expense to fly useless academics around;

The disgraceful Deri project 

Its very expensive "link" with Stanford seems dead;

 http://deri.org/

Visit the Deri site and play "spot the Irish researcher" (as distinct from admin);

http://www.deri.ie/people

My recent monograph describes how I think scientific research should be done;

Stuart Kauffman's review of "One magisterium"

My 2012 book has a chapter detailing what went wrong with science in Ireland;

A colony once again

It is now a matter of record that we did better in science internationally in an environment in which there was NO state funding beyond university salaries, and in which tenure was protected. Please see my article on tenure in chapter 9 of

http://www.amazon.com/Ireland-Crisis-Analyses-Proposed-Solutions/dp/1443849650



  It is noticeable that this mischievous ad in Nature is for FOREIGN researchers to come and do ethically dubious "science" in Ireland with corporate links. The native Irish? - we get summarily dismissed (the Cahill case), locked out of our labs (ditto) and our software stolen (my case)

Here are the letters

"A Thaoisigh, a chara

Still no reply. At this point I am not expecting one. We’ll fight it out in court; I have no fear of your state

However, I grant it is possible that Ministers O’Sullivan and Bruton have been told we have a brilliant R+D programme at universities and that people like me rock the boat. While you may prefer to go along with this fantasy, it is as well yet again to point out how ridiculous Ireland looks when these lies are attempted on a global audience It is not even my job to tell you this; clearly, you have incompetent advisors around you and I am concerned for my country. It may be ok for you to look like a fool (as in the “Lenin in Ireland” scenario) and head into retirement, but the rest of us need respect.

“Nature” is one of the top 2 science journals in the world. This week (16 Oct 2014, vol 514 Issue no 7522) there is an ad for SFI facing P. 286.  It claims Ireland is “in the top 20 countries overall for citations…1^st, 3^rd and 4^th in immunology, nanoscience and computer science”

You can check this claim at;

http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/university-subject-rankings/2014/computer-science-information-systems#sorting=rank+region=+country=+faculty=+stars=false+search=

It is clearly a lie; there is no Irish uni in the top 200, which means that Ireland will be lucky to be 50^th in computer science let alone 4^th.  Any self-respecting researcher will know the ad to be a lie.  The other two are not even “subjects” as defined in academic best practice but take it we are not in the top 50 for biology – the nearest equivalent -  either

No, I’m not expecting any action. But have a look at the life of P. Bartholomew Ahern as we Irish tire of all these lies and waste. As it happens, this is another problem we can and will solve with an effective and honest government. Your lack of reply to my solutions to the music business – just as we played the Sean O Riordain night in Dublin and achieved a major breakthrough in US radio – indicates to me a closed system

Dr O Nuallain

A Thaoisigh, a chara

Many billions have been spent on Irish universities and research since I was illegally forced to leave DCU  in 2002. DCU in particular benefited from patronage due to its proximity to then Taoiseach Ahern’s constituency. It was also allowed to act outside the law. For the record, I ran international confernces every year that brought in money,  had my  research money stolen, and was so proud to serve my country that I never asked for an increment.

Yet, even after all that it DCU still not one of the world’s top 500 universities;

http://www.shanghairanking.com/ARWU2014.html

On the same page you will note that Stanford is number 2 and UC Berkeley is number 4. I taught 2 new courses I designed myself at Stanford;

http://web.stanford.edu/class/symbsys129/

https://symsys.stanford.edu/viewing/symsysaffiliate/1463

I had to leave Stanford in 2012 as my visa was delayed by the US embassy in Dublin. You will recall certain difficulties regarding ex-Ambassador Rooney and his visa chief Bradley Wilde. Senior Stanford faculty have apologized that I was collateral damage

I continue to run a seminar at Berkeley in science after teaching Irish music there;

http://foundationsofmind.org/

http://celtic.berkeley.edu/flyer%20Irish%20Song%20&%20Music%20course.pdf

As you now know, I did all this while 15 years of notes and books that I owned, and 15 years of work that I did there (1987-2002 with a break in Canada) were being held illegally at DCU. I politely request you to continue the decency that got me my physical possessions back and help me get back my work. It is a matter of public record that FF were trying to privatize the universities and all they contained.

University education is changing; with online courses being aggressively promoted by Stanford and Berkeley through coursera.org and edx.org, it is possible that Ireland will be left at the starting post.  If I and the other talented people shafted by your predecessors are allowed reactivate their careers in Ireland, we can turn it around. We do not  need money from Ireland , just accreditation; I can get very good staff here in the USA.

 Apart from filling the 1,000 or so job vacancies in software localization in Ireland, we could enroll tens of thousands in online Irish studies and cognitive science internationally. We would be the first in both areas. This would work as a private-public project with the state sharing the costs and profits

I suggest that we resolve the issue with DCU with minimal cost to the taxpayer. They clearly owe me money for withholding my physical property. I suggest they pay whatever it costs to buy a house equivalent to the one I had to sell. It would be appropriate for them to grant this. We could settle the IP issue separately. Given that I was able to work at 2 of the world’s top 4 universities without any resources, it is clear that there has been huge loss to Ireland

Is mise le meas

Dr O Nuallain"

PS Of course Nanotech can claim also to be physics........again, try and find an Irish uni in the top 200 in physics. That ad - which I assume also went out in "Science" and elsewhere - must be withdrawn



Finally, here are some figures from what appears a reputable  source

 A government agency has paid for an ad containing lies about the performance of a very expensive project and done so in an international journal

 Here are the rankings in computer science for the years 1996-2013;

http://www.scimagojr.com/countryrank.php?area=1700&category=0&region=all&year=all&order=it&min=0&min_type=it

Ireland is 35 not 4 as the ad said

 37 for 2013, single year, thus excluding the possibility that SFI needed time to redress the lack of research 1996-2002

30 in 2002, the year before SFI began. In short, massive investment of taxpayers' money has led to a LOWER ranking

Immunology

http://www.scimagojr.com/countryrank.php?area=2700&category=2723&region=all&year=all&order=it&min=0&min_type=it

Again 35 not 1 as the ad said

 36 for 2013, single year, thus excluding the possibility that SFI needed time to redress the lack of research 1996-2002

 32 in 2002, the year before SFI began. In short, massive investment of taxpayers' money has led to a LOWER ranking



Nanotech

http://www.scimagojr.com/countryrank.php?area=2500&category=2509&region=all&year=all&order=it&min=0&min_type=it

Ireland is 30 not 4 as the ad said. 32 for 2013, single year, thus excluding the possibility that SFI needed time to redress the lack of research 1996-2002

 31 in 2002, the year before SFI began. In short, massive investment of taxpayers' money has led to a LOWER ranking


In short, SFI is a colossal waste of money.

We have not even mentioned the fact that FEWER Irish companies now get Nasdaq listings after more than a decade of SFI than did before. By SFI's own account, even their patent and spinoff activity is dismal;

http://www.finfacts.ie/irishfinancenews/article_1024619.shtml
 
The respected finfacts site also labels SFI's goals as delusional;

http://www.finfacts.ie/irishfinancenews/article_1026400.shtml

It also echoes research by Brian O'Neill over 10 years ago showing many researchers double and treble-dipping into funds from PRTLI,, SFI, etc. Brian also claimed much of the funds went into BUILDING, not research. We can assume that these were the buildings sold at a discount to foreign firms





PPS The "Lenin in Ireland" incident was described as follows in the Brit tabloid Sun , with all the insult to Irish intelligence that is its stock-in-trade;

The Sun wot won it

Yes; when Ireland  agreed to shoulder over E100 billion debt its people had not incurred, this is the level of advice our PM had

I felt inspired to write this ditty; think a Ronnie Drew growl, a melody like the verse of  "are  you right there Michael" or "st Kevin" or similar come-all-ye. There is a reference to Lenin's menage a trois.....

Lenin in Dublin

We've all heard oul Solzhenitsyn

Say in Zurich Vlad did reside

But auld Alex did never start bitchin'
About when Lenin went Liffeyside.

The Whites and the Reds they were fightin'

His two wives started to moan
Says Vlad I'll sail over to Ireland
and check out their National Loan.

He sauntered out ever so vain

Promenaded on Dun Laoghaire pier

when the wives complained of the rain

He stopped in to Neary's for a beer.

Mick Collins was helpful and martyred

The country it was  stony broke

That's always the case and departin'
Lenin saw Dublin sink under the smoke.

PPPS Finally, elsewhere I have written about the coincidence of the  foci of SFI and the CIA's In-Q-tel

http://seanonuallain.blogspot.com/2013/07/science-foundation-ireland-and-cia.html

This of course makes it look as if i have spent too much time in Berkeley, home of the conspiracy theory. and then - thank you Jesus - a US spook comes out and confirms my suspicions that the USA has been trying to subvert the culture, including the science of other countries.

In Greenwald (2014, P 167) an NSA/SIGINT officer for "science and technology" announces that the main goals of the spooks are "Money, national interest and Ego". The destruction of  the Irish music industry that I document earlier on this blog can be viewed in terms of the spooks' goal of "pervasive exportation of American culture as well as technology". On another blog I have documenetd their attempts effectively to de-recognize Ireland as a country, probably at the behest of their British catamites;

http://seanonuallain.blogspot.com/2014/03/irelands-missing-ambassador-strange.html


 Greenwald, G. (2014) No place to hide NY: Henry Holt



 Seán Ó Nualláin 2014

Specific policies for a new Irish political party.

(AS Elsewhere (CSP, 2013) I have written about what a constitution for a new Irish republic might look like.

You can find this book, the proceedings of the first ICIS conference at UC Berkeley, with a free excerpt at

http://www.cambridgescholars.com/ireland-in-crisis-16

The monograph can be found at

http://www.cambridgescholars.com/ireland-16

A free excerpt from my monograph is at;

http://www.cambridgescholars.com/download/sample/59226

I include this parenthesized antescript  as the readership of this blog is indeed international)

Here the objectives are less abstract; simply to outline current absurdities and  to propose a course of action to resolve them

I. The nation and its territory

It would seem reasonable to assume;

-         That there is a national territory

-         That there be no ambiguity about sovereignty

-         That there be a clear ownership of the island’s  natural resources by the Irish people for their own benefit

-         That we Irish be accorded the status of a sovereign nation by the USA rather than have a charge d’affaires

-         That the US embassy in Dublin properly safeguard the Irish passports entrusted to it for visa approval

Neither of the above is true as of the early 21^st century; after the 1998 referendum there is no territory and none of the island is ours. After the  2004 referendum , the alternative pre-1998  definition is also gone. Therefore these are the policies;

1 The territory of the Irish state is the island of Ireland

2. A referendum is to take place in “northern Ireland” allowing areas to secede. Those that do secede will lose immediate access to Irish passports

3. If the USA continues to treat us abusively , we should recall our ambassador

II Macroeconomic policy

It would seem reasonable to assume;

-         That we should have control over a currency

-         That we should not set a world first in having junior private bank debt transferred to the sovereign

-         That we should get a deal at least as good as Iceland, post 2008, whose private banks defaulted on British account holders

None of the above is true as of the early 21^st century. We therefore propose;

1. We should refuse to repay all debt imposed by the IMF/ECB
2. As a quid pro quo, we should offer to bring our corporation tax regime in line with the rest of the EU;
3. If this offer is not accepted, we should reboot our “punt” currency and exploit the carrying capacity of a land currently exporting over $13 billion worth of food every year

III Civil and corporate law enforcement

It would seem reasonable to assume;

- That our corporate law enforcement body has taken at least one successful prosecution since its formation in 2001;

- That there be no ambiguity about whether civil or common law exists in Ireland, and whether its basis is natural law or not;

- That judges should be properly trained, and refrain from gratuitous comments;

- That 100% of the new law should come from Ireland, not 25%

None of the above is true as of the early 21^st century. We therefore propose , in a land whose revolution was exemplified by the creation of a new court system;

1. The civil and corporate law systems be stripped down to basics about property;
2. That criminal law rely on the common law;
3. that properly trained judges interpret the law vis a vis justice and civil society precedent and in so doing create the basis for new fundamentals

IV Culture and ethnicity

It would seem reasonable to assume;

-         That Ireland is the land of the Irish, as France is of the French, and that the public statements of university presidents should not demand that the Irish be a minority ethnicity in Ireland;

-         That the highest cultural resources of the state be reserved for the ethnically Irish;

-         That the state behave to its citizens with decency and with a sense of the benefits to the world of a fully-realized Irish state;

-         That the goal be the Irish fully alive, rather than neoliberalism exemplified

None of the above is true as of the early 21^st century. We therefore propose that;

-         A definition of Irish ethnicity, one that recognizes our vast Diaspora, be included in the constitution;

-         That any immigrants should be assimilated;

-         That we cease projects like those in science that replace native enterprise with extravagantly-funded and foreign-staffed nonsense

V Right to life

It would seem reasonable to assume;

-         That life in all its manifestations be honoured, including  through a well-provisioned health service

-         That, given scientific  ignorance of the relation between impulse and action, suicide not be grounds for full-term abortion with its Gothic mechanism

Neither  of the above is true as of the early 21^st century. We therefore propose that;

-         The state refrain from having power over life and death

VI Property

It would seem reasonable to assume;

-         That those losing their homes to foreclosure would not have to pay the debt for which their inability to pay is the reason for their eviction;

-         That those who make massive property investments and lose them through incompetence should not be able to hold onto them at the taxpayers’ expense;

Neither  of the above is true as of the early 21^st century. We therefore propose that;;

1. NAMA be scrapped and the property be sold at market price, or alternatively used to woo the recent Diaspora back with cheap home deals;
2. That, given that homelessness is more expensive to the state than building cheap housing for the indigent, we should do the latter;
3. That the current scams involving NAMA to promote scarcity in various prestige areas of Dublin to pump up the property values of the Irish establishment be scrapped

VII Industrial relations

It would seem reasonable to assume;

-         That since unions are legal, so are strikes for illegal dismissal

-         That the state should ensure equality of representation at illegal dismissal tribunals

Neither  of the above is true as of the early 21^st century. We therefore propose that;

1. The current “social partnership” model be abandoned and real unions be allowed to emerge
2. Equality of representation should be enshrined in law as the ECHR required in Morris and Steele vs UK (2005)

VIII State media

It would seem reasonable to assume;

-         That the national broadcaster should stress quality material, from all over the world;

-         That it should either pay for itself through ads or attenuate to a bare-bones quality service

Neither  of the above is true as of the early 21^st century. We therefore propose that;

   1. RTE should cast off its “pop” wing and be subsidized as a quality service, as distinct from consuming hundreds of millions annually in the production of trash

  2.   Producers and presenters currently with RTE  and having to leave should be subsidized to create independent media companies

IX Culture

It would seem reasonable to assume, particularly in a country with as ancient and attractive an attested and living culture as Ireland;

-         That state export boards would not collude with criminals in selling the quality expression of its greatest artists for Walmart to market at cut-price;

-         That the national “music rights body” should not be involved in copyright theft at an industrial scale;

-         That the entire corpus of traditional should not be privatized, but be in the public domain;

-         That criminals in this area should be brought to justice once caught in Ireland by the Gardai, and exposed both in British litigation and US federal court proceedings

None of the above is true as of the early 21^st century. We therefore propose that;

1. The statute of limitations be lifted for these crimes as for others;
2. Civil “servants” involved should be prosecuted, and lose their pensions if convicted

Seán O Nualláin

What we Irish should learn from the Scottish independence referendum

Ireland’s colonial history and the genocide repeatedly visited on the country are well-known facts. Less well-known is that Ireland became the donkey on which the  tail was pinned in 2010, the international debtor of last resort;

http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/ireland-must-play-hardball-to-get-deal-on-bank-bailouts-29954697.html

Since this indenture was imposed on Ireland, approximately 250k of the brightest and best have left the country. It is  clear that we were never meant to recover from the famine and Cromwellian genocides; it is equally clear that this is the Endlosung, the final solution with a debt that cannot be repaid forever burdening Ireland.

In 1998 the Irish people were conned into giving up their national territory (all of it, not just the NE corner) in the name of “peace”. They were told that there would be a referendum in that corner to determine its status; there is no sign of it. However, in 2004  there WAS a referendum in the rest of the island in which the people decided 80:20 that the 1998 definition of the nation was wrong.

Now we know what will await us if the NI referendum comes to pass. The US president will weigh in for a “No” vote;

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/scottish-independence/11103256/Barack-Obama-tells-Scotland-stay-united.html

This is particularly the   case as the Obama administration persistently uses Ireland as a whipping-boy be it for his obsession with gender “rights” or tax;

http://www.irishcentral.com/opinion/others/Obama-needs-to-stop-bad-mouthing-Ireland-right-away.html

From the ramparts of  international neoliberal establishment we will experience fire;

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/scottish-independence-blow-to-yes-campaign-as-bp-and-standard-life-claim-breakaway-will-harm-business-9724874.html

So what can be done? Elsewhere in my “Ireland in crisis” book, I proposed a new constitution in which Ireland reinstates its claim on its territory and interprets the NI referendum as the opportunity for electoral areas to secede.

It is my belief that we are undergoing yet another genocide. I do not believe that we are still meant to be producing the level of high culture we are doing, just as the success of the Irish in America was not foreseen. The “Ireland in crisis” book is full of solutions, at the political, administrative, technological and state narrative levels. The way things are deteriorating in Ireland, they may even be implemented

  Seán O Nualláin

PS (28 April 2015) What of sinn fein holding the balance of power in Westminster after holding their noses/crossing their fingers as they swear loyalty a la 1927?

Why active civil disobedience in Ireland is both increasing and morally justifiable

The Irish constitution defines treason narrowly as the attempt to destroy the state by violence. Thus, the criminals who accepted over $100 billion   debt to international banksters are not by this definition traitors; nor are the Irish banksters  who deliberately lied to the Irish authorities to get $10 billion to keep their Anglo scam going for a while; nor are the scum who destroyed our music industry, putting in its place the U2 Muppet show;

http://davemarsh.us/?p=951

In the past week, the Irish deputy prime minister has  been confronted with her espousal of the classic neoliberal tactic of throwing people out of their homes by activists threatening to take the law into their own hands;

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/t%C3%A1naiste-heckled-at-dublin-homelessness-conference-1.1936483

Of course, in opposition  she used to be a vigorous defender of  housing rights;

http://www.labour.ie/press/2008/07/04/home-repossessions-double-in-just-12-months/

Taking the law into one’s own hands is exactly how revolutionary public like Ireland began.

For the first time, we have seen  Irish people going “postal” at higher rates than the USA and – a la the Dolce Vita – killing their children. There is a massive increase in suicide, alcoholism, and every other index. The Irish state is responding by exporting its talented and young people and replacing them with worker drones for corporate interests.

This is not a stable state of affairs

  Seán O Nualláin
 
PS Please note that I am not advocating a return to 1969-1994. The current situation wherein politicians are being confronted in public is fine with me. In that sense I advocate "civil disobedience". And yes, the threat of a centenary rerun on 1916  - very unlikely and probably even more of a military debacle - should be there and I am not willing to condemn groups like Eirigi

And now – independence for Ireland?

All I am about to say has been published by us in 2 CSP books (2012, 2013). Here I am just trying to spark a real debate (ie one that will end with action, perhaps in conjunction with our Scots cousins)

First of all, unlucky indeed is the land that needs  heroes; but  non-existent is the nation that doesn’t have them. Scotland’s shame will last a generation; it has been 35 years since the 1979 referendum and by 2049 North Sea oil will be gone. In 1960 JFK won less than 50% of the vote; by 1962 surveys showed 64% claimed they voted for him. We will have a lot of yes voters in 2015's Scotland

 What this campaign showed was the limits of the purely civic nationalism the SNP espouses. The Scots could be scared by rebuttal of Salmond’s economic arguments; what was needed was a narrative tying them to their land.  Yet his central thesis, that a low population density, resource-rich country can thrive in the 21st century is one we Irish need to pay attention to.

In my 2013 book, I argued that we should be willing to risk losing foreign investment as we refuse to pay the “debt” imposed on us in 2010 to buttress the  neoliberal world order. We always had the ability to do without Google, Facebook and other US garbage. Then again, so has Scotland. Instead we created garbage like Deri in SFI and imported criminals who continue to assert (in publications written with Botox’s manufacturer) against attested lab work that Botox cannot reach the brain;

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/whistleblowers-lab-probe-scientist-to-take-up-irish-post/188052.article

There has recently been controversy about censorship of poets in the Maldives. Are  we in Ireland really in a position to throw stones here? W  do not allow musicians to make a living – it is documented that the chair of IMRO, FF’s Shay Hennessy, was stealing copyrights in the 1990’s at an industrial scale. The state then colluded with him via Enterprise Ireland to sell off the songs at a cut rate via Walmart. So we celebrate Dolores Keane’s return, we should be aware of the factors that caused her depression and drug abuse. Specifically, not getting paid for her work

Secondly, our “legal system has nothing to do with justice.  The Gardai rarely investigate white-collar crime; when they do, as with the Hennessy music scam, the prosecution in interfered with at the DPP level and the musicians had to go to Federal court in the USA, where they won. The alternative is grinding through a system whose legal costs  that has spawned three of the top 20 biggest legal firms in the EU from a population of 1% or so of the total

Thirdly, we do not have academic freedom in Ireland. The 1990 act prohibits strikes for “single” dismissals of everybody, including uni profs. Only Paul Cahill’s willingness to declare bankruptcy in the event of his losing prevented mass sackings at DCU.

The Irish State has a classic corporatist structure, with evisceration of civil society. By all means invite poets from anywhere to speak here; but it should not turn into another excuse for not investigating the institutionalized criminality  and brutalization of artists and thinkers rampant in Ireland

Our  country did not fail for lack of talent and hard work

 Seán O Nualláin

PS Now for the good news; in 1979 only 32% of the Scottish electorate voted in favour of devolution. In 2014 38%  of the Scottish electorate voted in favour of outright independence. The trajectory seems clear, and Westminster will have to "think again" as "Flower of Scotland" puts it.

Looked at through this filter, Salmond looks like the last hope for an independent Scotland that remained loyalist and in NATO. The response from Westminster may be devolution on their terms, with the Scottish Labour MP's hamstrung by the "West Lothian question" and so irrelevant that the Scots begin to replace them with the SNP. Then comes an ethnic national independence drive, possibly after a UK EU withdrawal, one that has a hard man like Jimmy Reid in charge, one that will rightly ignore the BS we heard from international banksters

Next time we Irish should explicitly support outright independence for Scotland

PPS  It is as well to mention, given this scandalous incident of vandalism by Irish students in the SF area;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrJyXL4h3iY

that in 2013 Mel and I formally wrote to the Irish consul-general there complaining about how the behaviour of these students might create anti-Irish sentiment

Announcing an online course in Irish music and song taught at UC Berkeley

We are currently offering an online course on “Irish Music and Song ” precisely as 
taught as an advanced seminar in UC Berkeley .

A sample lecture and outline of the course can be found at

http://universityofireland.com/irisherig2011.html

You can simply become a member of the following blog to enroll;
http://irishmusicandsong.blogspot.com/

Queries can be sent to universityofireland@gmail.com

The course costs $25, and will run with lectures posted on the blog every week from Sept 19 for 5 weeks Passwords will be issued to members.

  Please pay at

http://foundationsofmind.org/donate/



It does NOT use video, as we believe that slides + voiceover is a more economical means of learning. The method of assessment is essay submission at the end of the course. As with all the other courses in Stanford's recent offerings (which includes a Berkeley course on software as a service), it is NOT accredited by UC Berkeley , but taught exactly as in UC Berkeley

Students who submit an essay will be given a signature of completion and an indication of where they would have finished vis a vis the Berkeley class

An independent Scotland may make Ireland irrelevant - so vote "yes"

Readers, please note you can find free  excerpts from my 2 books on Ireland here;

http://www.cambridgescholars.com/download/sample/59226

and here;


http://www.cambridgescholars.com/ireland-in-crisis-16


The books are also for sale;


 http://www.amazon.com/Ireland-A-Colony-Once-Again/dp/1443840858

http://www.amazon.com/Ireland-Crisis-Analyses-Proposed-Solutions/dp/1443849650

 (A further letter to the Taoiseach)

I have made serious allegations of criminal activity and believe that
documentary evidence is readily available. It is not just at DCU the
crimes were committed, but – as I indicated – the music industry.
Indeed, it could be argued that what was being planned at Ireland was
a massive sell-off of the universities, the music, everything.

Ironically, Irish corruption  may allow an independent Scotland get a
great start. Scotland already has universities much higher ranked than
ours and its artists and engineers have not had to put up with Fianna
Fail so are better placed than ours.

Maybe this exchange is simply the government collecting information
with no intention to act; but as an Irishman I must show that I did
care sufficiently to predict how we should re-assert our sovereignty;

http://www.amazon.com/Ireland-Crisis-Analyses-Proposed-Solutions/dp/1443849650

I am sympathetic to the constraints you experience from the ECB/IMF
but a “yes” vote from Scotland with its implicit rejection of
neoliberalism will provide an opening for you to cast off the ECB/IMF
shackles and  indeed become a nation once again, perhaps with
overwhelmingly protestant Scotland  guaranteeing the rights of
Ireland’s Protestant co-religionists of Alex Salmond  in a loose
confederation.

PS Those wondering about the wisdom of an ex-pat advising the Taoiseach may do well to consider that the current Ostrich strategy is unlikely to work;

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/polititcs/dublin-silence-will-no-longer-be-an-option-if-scotland-votes-for-independence-1.1919450

This is particularly the case as it emerges from "mandarins" who believed that Lenin visited Ireland during the Russian civil war;

 http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/enda-kenny-redfaced-over-wrong-claim-that-lenin-visited-ireland-26889968.html

Maybe they thought it was Lennon?

PPS The content above has now been acknowledged by the Taoiseach.

As companies like BP come out for "no" in Scotland we are getting a sense of what the years 1916-1924 must have been like in Ireland. The added complication of having to defeat the British militarily after repeatedly voting “yes” in Ireland  will not have to be faced by the Scots. Anything other than “yes” is a national disgrace from which they will not recover, particularly after we showed then the way and took the brunt of British violence.

A “No” vote will make it even more urgent that we cure the pathological state of Irish society so that our shared culture can persist in the world

PPPS (14/9) Remarkable  party politics this past week.

1. Gordon Brown and others announce that the status quo is untenable and that the original option Salmond requested of increased  devolution will follow a "no" vote

2. Al Darling seems to amplify this, then goes on the Scotsman to speecify - nothing

3 Hague confirms this by saying Westminster has planned  no additional powers for holyrood

4. Cameron announces  he loves his country more than his party

The biggest party political winners from a "yes" would be the Tories as Labour will lose 40 + seats at Westminster.. So the Tories seem to have a wing that would prefer Scotland leave...........

 Seán O Nualláin

Finally  (4/2015) We seem to be close to a situation wherein a coalition of the SNP, SDLP and the Sinn feiners who take the oath with their fingers crossed hold the balance of power in Westminster. Indeed, for the English to maintain their own sovereignty, they may be compelled to slough off the Celtic "fringe" ........